You are asking the wrong questions.

The recent delay of Dark Souls Remastered for Switch has prompted the usual ResetERA concern trolling questions to come out. My personal favorite being (thanks to Deguello sharing it in our Discord):

So I’m not sure what’s going on. Is Nintendo’s 3rd Party relations guy just focusing on indies? Is Nintendo not trying hard enough or do 3rd party publishers not care? Phil Spencer Fils-Aime should go to Japan.

Here’s a hint to the answer guys and gals reading this post: I posted the answer is bold. There is your answer. That is the reason why and has always been the reason. I am not going to waste most of my writing effort to get in depth as to why Nintendo has always had a shitty third party problem, because frankly I cannot muster enough of a shit to their continued existence and rather laugh at the real misery of Third Parties while Nintendo continues to get over-analyzed like shit despite having great success with Switch.

Instead, how about you ask these questions and consider these points?

Why are Third Parties dragging their heels on Switch despite proven success stories?

If the main counter-point to the first point is “well they were burned by past Nintendo consoles like WiiU”, how the fuck do you explain their continual support of the Xbox One which has always had lower sales of multi-platform games then the WiiU?

If “demographics” are brought into play, explain even further their continual support of the Xbox One.

If “power” is also another constant issue, how the fuck did Panic Button get Doom 2016 working with only a little graphic fidelity lost and Wolfenstein II looking great from first impressions at PAX recently?

Why the hell are Capcom and Namco purposely under-shipping games like DragonBall Xenoverse 2 and Monster Hunter Double Cross?

My shits given to a majority of major Third Parties is at a all time low, especially given the fact that EA and now Activision seem more intent on putting in Lootboxes to make back money instead of, you know, making actually good video games. Unlike the Wii era, the Switch era is proving that consumers now know better and don’t believe the usual gaming journalist and publisher/developer excuses. Heck, even publishers like NIS are finding themselves thriving on Switch thanks to the success of Disgaea 5. Switch owners want these games on Switch, but…

Mostly well-known and beloved older games, actually. Current output aside from, say, NieR Automata and Persona 5, has been between lame and me asking “what the fuck is wrong with you?” The latter is Star Wars Battlefront II, which has made everyone involved look like idiots. I would love to see games like Bioshock 1 and 2 on Switch since 2K put them on other nVidia technology. Switch is the perfect system for games getting second chances, the problem is Third Parties don’t realize that, because they just don’t care.

So here is my response: just let them wither and die, and allow Nintendo to fill in the gaps for their own benefit and groom their developer partners for greatness. Capcom wants to be shit with Street Fighter by basically making the 30th Anniversary Collection on every system except Switch get the Ultra Street Fighter IV game for free? Nintendo is pushing the new SNK Heroines for NIS and SNK, and it actually looks good, because Nintendo saw how popular Hamster’s Arcade Archives were on the Switch since day one. Hell, most of SNK’s KoF entries are on Switch minus online play, but they are still pretty damn good!

Just don’t wither and die Bethseda, you have somehow gotten back into my good graces by actually listening to Switch owners and putting gyro aiming in Doom for Switch.

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One thought on “You are asking the wrong questions.”

I have a question. Why do people keep blaming Nintendo for 3rd parties shitty decisions? You think these devs don’t know people want their game on the Switch? They know, they just don’t care or their publishers don’t. Games on switch have been outselling their PS4 counterparts. One even saved a dev from going out of business (Blossom Tales).

Capcom knows people wanted Monster Hunter XX in the West. They just don’t care. Namco knows people want Ni No Kuni 2 on Switch, they just don’t care. Same with Persona 5. Either that or there are a lot of backroom exclusivity deals being struck by Sony to keep certain games of rival platforms, at least for a time.

Switch is the hottest thing on the market right now. It’s outselling PS4 2 to 1 in Japan every week. Any Japanese dev that isn’t scrambling to get their games on Switch is leaving money on the table. Western devs are by and large, hopeless. If they don’t want my money, fine. I’ll give it to people who actually want it.